Under Construction...again

Finally after 3 weeks of waiting the materials for our fence have come in.

Yesterday the man and his dad rented an auger and went to digging some post holes.
Two of them were a pain in the ass because of massive amounts of concrete burried in our yard and roots from our huge tree. But by 7:30 we had it done.

So I left for work this morning and the man went to putting it together. After one hitch (they cut the holes to small on one of the posts) he was rolling along.

by 9:30
the first section was up.







By 10:10
the second section was done.






I am wondering if he is going to send me a pic for all 7 sections. Only time will tell.

Once the fence is done we are going to sod the whole yard, so that we can finally have grass. We haven't had grass in the back yard since we moved in. When we moved in there were two small trees, a brick wall planter area around that and a pond in the corner where the fence is going. The rest of the yard was pavers with stuff growing through them and the rest was mulch. I think the people that lived there previously must have hated mowing the lawn, so they just got rid of it. And along the edges of the yard was overgrown irises. The roots of them were all over the place. I have been ripping it out since we moved in, not because I don't like it but because it is everywhere. It's growing in the middle of the lawn in the front. It seems to just move to new places when I rip it out.

The front yard was another nightmare. There were 15-20 completely overgrown, never trimmed azalea's, pachysandra and ivy. Then there was a small patch of grass maybe 10-20 ft in the middle with some odd palm tree looking thing in the middle. Oh and iris's everywhere there too. We still find it trying to come up in the middle of the front lawn.

Oog I hurt and other good times

This weekend was a little more entertaining than I have had in a while.

Saturday was our neighborhood Progressive Dinner. It is a lot of fun. It involves going to a different neighbors house for each course of dinner. And everyone walks through the neighborhood with their wine or beer coolers to all the houses. So there was an appetizer, salad, entree and desert house. We skipped the apps because it was at the asshole neighbor who called the township on us's house, yup them. So we went right to salads at the scheduled time. It was cool, turns out it was a the house of a guy who I grew up living two houses away from. The other courses were at two houses that had been remodeled and I became jealous of their kitchens. But it was really fun.

Sunday the man decided that he wanted to insulate and sheet rock the garage. This involved a trip to Home Depot. Which is not usually a big deal. But we managed to get a cart that would not go straight. And once you have 14 sheets of sheet rock and insulation and spackle becomes a freakin nightmare. Just trying to maneuver the damn thing was evil. The man was in the front pulling and I was pushing and trying to steer the damn thing. It was all a pain but we made it to the checkout, but as we are going through people were just getting in the way. I mean we had a HUGE load of stuff and were saying hey look out we don't want to hit you, and people wouldn't get out of the way, we almost knocked a bunch of people over.
And while trying to get it through checkout the man pulled the damn thing and it started turning, and my hand happened to be in the way and it got crushed. Instant purple knuckles and swelling. Then when we finally got it almost out the door, IT HAPPENED AGAIN! So my left hand is freakin killing me.

We finally got it outside and someone came over to help us. Yes this whole time people were just watching us struggle with the damn thing.

So now my left hand hurts, and my trapezius muscle is all tight and owwy from pulling the damn cart and lifting sheet rock.

We almost got the garage done though. It's about 3/4 sheet rocked now, so soon we will be able to put up shelves and build a work bench and stuff to organize our crap. YAY

Mouse Update

I think we may be mouse free. To ease Dykewife's mind, we have field mice in our area. Leetle tiny brown field mice. I think those are the only one's I have ever seen around here. I grew up in a house that backed up to woods and we had mice every once and a while and they always looked the same, leetle and brown.

Now my only problem is dealing with the smell. The man can't smell it, but I can because I know the smell from dealing with them at my mom's and at my first house. It's a rather specific rotting smell.

So I am attempting to cover it by placing glasses with peppermint oil soaked cotton balls in areas where we caught the little fuckers. I think it's working because I am smelling peppermint when I walk around the house, so that's a good thing.

Spam phone call

I just got a random call on my cell phone, of all things.

It was from a number I didn't recognize and I almost didn't answer it. But I am retarded and bored so I answered.

It was some pleasant sounding woman saying she was calling from a publisher company in Ohio. She said I had entered a contest to win 25k, a trip to Australia, a new car and a room remodeled in my home. Just for entering I would be receiving 4 magazines, such as Good Housekeeping, Elle, Glamour and Rachel Ray, for 48 months for free. They only wanted to verify my address. TO which she did and then asked how the weather was in NJ. I said fine and she said looks like spring is here. Then she said that they like to get information about magazine readers and she had a few questions to ask me. Starting off with my age.

*Brakes squeel*

I stopped her here and said listen I am at work right now and I really can't sit on the phone and go through a list of questions with you. She said would after work hours be better? I said well do I really need to answer your questions? And she got snotty with me and with a "of course you do" tone she said Yes.
I said well then no thank you. And hung up.

The only thing I remember filling out that had a chance to win a trip to Australia was at that damn bridal show my mom made me go to.

I have since looked up the phone number and found stories from other people who got a call from the same number. A lot of these people were women who had filled out something at David's Bridal and who ordered the Bender Ball video.

For future reference if you get a call from 216-456-8038, don't answer it.

Phone solicitor assholes!

Decomposition...

Ok so we had the mice thing. They ate poison. Now my house smells like dead mice.

I envision my vents with smell lines waving out of them.

It's supposed to be warm this weekend, so we will probably have the windows open and hopefully that will help.

I also put glasses with peppermint oil soaked cotton balls in the areas where we caught the mice, so I am hoping that works too.

Not much we can do, cause I am not going to go around punching holes into the walls and ceilings to find the mice that met their demise.

WTW?!

why did the death of martha stewart's dog make the news?

I mean it's on the MSNBC main page. Is this really news for the masses?

We're Infested

I have been sitting here for days on end thinking I had nothing to blog about. Then I realized that I forgot to tell the story about our mouse infestation. Warning to super animal lovers, this involves the death of the critters.

First off, some of you may or may not know, that we live in an 80 year old house. Plaster walls a little drafty and all that jazz. You also know that we had our garage torn down and rebuilt, that's old news.

Well it seems that around the time of the tearing down, we got a few mice in the house. We figured it was from the destruction of the garage because we saw mice scurrying out of it when it came down. The monkey had seen one scurry under the oven once or twice, so I got some mouse traps that are supposed to be all nice and easy. They mice are supposed to go inside this round plastic thing and the trap closes on them trapping them inside, so you don't have to see them and you just throw the whole thing out.

Well these traps suck and I think the mice thought so too and would dance around them in joy and mocking.

We didn't see any mice, so we figured from lack of food that they had gone. Until about a month ago. The monkey was going nuts around the floor cabinet by her food bowl. She was scratching and crying and sniffing like a lunatic. So I decided to investigate.

I pulled the drawer out and I found a whole bunch of junk underneath. Old papers and towels and trash from the previous owner. And within all that lovely stuff was mouse shit. I groaned. I pulled everything out and cleaned up the whole area, meanwhile the dog is still going out of her mind. Then I decided to investigate the other drawers. In each and every drawer was mouse shit. In the towel drawer in one of the towels was mouse shit and dog food. The little fuckers were taking the dog food and hiding in the drawers to eat it. In the bottom drawer I found that they were storing the dog food in the trash bag box, so they didn't have to expose themselves to get a snack.

This pissed me off and I decided it was war.

I went out and got the old fashioned spring loaded traps. And I preceded to put them under every drawer and behind the water cooler by the monkey's bowl. And then I waited.

By the evening I had caught 2.

That night the monkey was crying and sniffing by the vent in our bedroom. I thought great now they are upstairs, where there is NO food at all. But we had an advantage, our upstairs bathroom tub has an access door in the stairwell. So I opened that up and from there you can see all the ceiling beams and I thought maybe they were traveling across the ceiling and up and down the pipes to the basement. So I put a trap in there. Within 5 minutes we had another one and the dog was going nuts again.

So I set all the traps again and tried to go to bed.

A few nights later, we heard a trap go off and then a scraping clunking noise as it crawled across the ceiling. We think maybe it's tail or a foot just got caught and it was making an attempt to get away. That was creepy.

We also somehow lost 3 traps. We put them in the access hole and when we went to check on them, they were gone. I was beginning to think that they were plotting against us and learning how to make a trap and turn it on us. However, within 2 weeks we had killed 12 mice. And added to our onslaught by putting out 4 boxes of poison, 2 of which were completely eaten. Who knows how many died from it. It had been a week since we caught any, so I checked the access behind the tub yesterday and there was another dead one! That brings our count to at least 13 and who knows if they are gone.

Since the weather is getting better, I think we are going to go around the basement and outside and see if there are any spaces that need to be filled to keep them from getting in. Cause it's just getting gross now.

New Candy

I was browsing the candy section of my neighborhood Walgreens, when I saw NEW CANDY.

I will basically try any candy that says new or limited edition on the wrapper.

This time it was M&Ms. They now have limited edition Wild Cherry M&M's and Indiana Jones Mint Crunch M&M's! The cherry one's aren't that bad. They are medium sized too and bigger is always better when it comes to chocolate. The Mint Crunch ones are like little Thin Mints (Yes the girl scout cookie). They have a cookie like center and the minty flavor. I think I love them.

Sigh

Nothing exciting happened this weekend.

I went to Old Navy with my mom for clothes. Ending up buying $358 worth. But had $190 in gift cards.
And then my mom paid for the remainder! Totally unexpected...I should try milking this getting married thing a little more.

The man worked from Thursday 10pm until 8am Saturday, straight. Yes people 32 hours in a row. I don't think he slept, but he did get the opportunity to shower and change clothes. The shitty thing is that he barked his shin on some stage truss in the first hour of the job. So he ended up walking on it for the other 30 hours. It was really swollen and hurt bad. We think it's infected now, cellulitis, cause it's all red and hot. He has been taking old antibiotics and it seems to be going away. Good thing because he could barely walk on it when he got home. I think I will make him go to the doctor if it's still red by tomorrow.

I had a makeup test for the wedding yesterday. It was a little odd, because I don't usually wear a lot of makeup, I am not very girlie. But I had to go lightly on everything because I hate having that caked makeup look. Plus it's a wedding, so I don't need to look like a hooker.

After that fun time, the man and I went for a motorcycle ride because the weather was nice. Weee!

bad blogger

I know there are only like 2 or 3 or you that check on my little section of the innerwebs, but I am sorry for being a bad blogger.

It's just that nothing remotely interesting has been going on. So I have had no desire to write anything down.
And I don't even want to bore myself by writing down wedding shit.

Work has been no stop busy until a few days ago, so I haven't been able to goof off and write.

My bridal shower was this past weekend. Not really a surprise, I suspected it had to be coming up.
I am not girly by any means, so the whole shower experience isn't exactly my thing. And being the center of attention makes me completely uncomfortable. My future sisters-in-law were completely excited and my mom was crazy excited too. Not exactly sure why cause my mom usually isn't like that. There were like 40 people there and I ended up with 3 car loads worth of stuff, so it ain't all bad.

Oh and yesterday we had a tasting at the venue for the wedding. Food yummy, cake des-lish.

That has been the extent of the last month or so. Ain't I exciting?

It's finally over...

This past weekend was Pre Cana. And all I can say is I am thrilled it's over.

It started off on Friday at 6pm. The reminder told us to be there at 6 and there would be refreshments, snacks and pizza. So the man and I both skipped dinner because we were told there would be food.

We get there and set up on some tables is veggies trays, cheese, some cookies, brownies and some soda and water. So we are thinking ok pre-dinner snack.

More people pile in and sit at the available tables and partake in the snacks. All the while you can hear people asking each other about the pizza. The couples at our table were all saying how they didn't have dinner cause they came right from work and were looking forward to the pizza.

So 6:30 the talks start. Each talk consisted of a couple getting up and giving us their biography on how they met and talks about one of the topics. I don't remember many of them because my stomach was eating itself. The ones I can remember were sex and sexuality (older couple talking about afternoon delights), adjustments in marriage (cute couple in their 70-80s), and the natural family planning talk that told us nothing.

After a talk, you take a test from your workbook and then go over your answers with each other. Then we were all split into groups for group sessions. These lasted about 10 minutes and were basically the couples sitting in a circle staring at each other while the lead couples tried to get us to talk.

After that a short break followed by another talk, test, group.

After the second group session there was a break and we noticed that the lead couples were eating. What were they eating....PIZZA!

So the man gets up with our reminder flyer and says to the lead peeps "Hey alot of us are wondering when we are going to get pizza." To which one of them says, "oh that's tomorrow." To which the man replies while holding up the flyer "Not according to this." They said "oh well that's a typo, the pizza is for lunch tomorrow." The man replies "Well you have a lot of pissed off people out here who haven't eaten dinner and they are hungry." They shrug, the man sits back down.

I am so hungry I am nauseous. I stuffed myself with cookies trying to get my blood sugar up and was on a sugar roller coaster of nausea. I barely paid attention to the rest of the evening because I felt so horrible. We got out at 9 and hit up a Wendy's for dinner.

The next morning was day 2 of pre cana. I woke up at 5 so sick I didn't know what to do with myself but I knew I had to make it to pre cana which lasted from 8:30-3. I basically overdosed on pepto bismol to stop any kind of unplanned evacuation.

When we got there they had a breakfast of donuts and bagels. I forced a donut down and hoped for the best.

More talks, tests and group sessions. The a holy hour, which was basically a small mass and then either confession or sitting until it was over. This is when we began text messaging everyone to complain about how much this sucked.

Holy hour was followed by the pizza, 18 hours too late. A few more talks and we were outta there by 2:30.

Seriously I didn't get much out of the whole ordeal. The whole idea of pre cana is to talk about things you may not have talked about. Like do you want kids, or how you are going to handle finances. I mean the man and I have been together for 3 years now. If you haven't talked about stuff like that in that amount of time, there is something seriously wrong with you and you don't know your partner. Maybe it's helpful for younger couples, who knows.

The common sense continues

Since I can't sit and listen to a freaking lecture while at work, I have been listening to the Sexual Common Sense cd in the car on my 5 minute commute. So I get about 20 minutes a day in snippets.
The damn thing is beginning to infuriate me. It's a lecture by a Ph.D. who is obviously skewed in one direction of the issue.

Today's lovely factoid got into "chemical contraception". She rattled of side effects of the pill that I haven't heard nor experienced. She claims that studies have shown that the pill causes irritability, ovarian cysts, weight gain and lowered sex drive.

Now anyone who has a television and is barraged with the countless Yaz and other oral contraception commericals knows that this is clearly false. Most of them are now touted as diminishing irritability, I can vouch for that myself. As for weight gain, I didn't see any and most really only make you gain 2-5 lbs initially but that evens out as you continue to take it. I have never heard of the pill causing ovarian cysts and I think my sister, who is a doctor and on the pill as well, would have mentioned that as a side effect. And if it was I think she would be smart enough to not take the damn thing and prescribe it to people let alone her sister. I have heard of diminished sex drive in some people, but nothing that makes a gal completely frigid.

And nothing kills a sex drive more than a screaming child. Nuf said

The weirdness continues...

Ok so we have to go take a premarital class, right? So the other day I got a package in the mail confirming our enrollment in this class. And along with the directions and what not is an audio cd.

Curious I turn it over and it's titled "Sexual Common Sense"

They are teaching the "natural family planning" method on audio cd now!!!!!!!

Hilarious.

Now the area I grew up in had rather extensive Health Classes in school. Junior year of high school we had "family living", where the teacher actually talked about different flavors of lubricant, positions, family planning and other methods of contraception, and stuff like that, so I think I am covered. Not to mention my sister was a sexual health advocate in college and is currently a doctor. I don't think I need this cd.

I am actually listening to it in the car. It's more sociology class than sex ed, so it's boring and lame.
I have to fill out a survey to tell if this cd was useful to me. Hehe

The Journey Continues

Yesterday the man and I had to go to our church and meet with the priest to take a test. It's basically a bunch of questions designed to get subjects out in the open that you may or may not have dealt with.

It was called FOCUS, I can't remember what it stands for but it was a list of statements that you either had to agree or disagree on. And it was scantron (the high school flashbacks were nifty)

It was basically quick and easy. There really isn't a grade, and if you're tests don't match up it's not like the priest won't marry us. It's just an interesting exercise that he likes to have couples do.

The questions were run of the mill. But there were a few that made me laugh.
Examples:

Agree, Disagree or Undecided

Your partner does things that annoy you.
I feel pressured to get married.
My partners family is interfering with our wedding plans.
My partners appearance is too important them.
My partner acts inappropriately in public.
I think I will be uncomfortable being naked in front of my partner. BWAH HAHAH
The sexual relationship we have is an example of Jesus' love.

That's just a taste. It didn't take long but some of the questions were so weird. I am not a religious person, and I really don't like the stuffy confines that comes with church. I don't think I need to go to a building to be spiritual. But I grew up going and I believe it did mold my morals as a person, so I guess it can't be all bad.

I am trying to not talk so much about my wedding, because I find people that obsess over it to be so irritating. So if I start blathering on about it too much, someone say something.

Slow Tuesday

I am sitting here with nothing to do. It's been a while since that has happened. Which explains the lack of frequent posting. I guess if this little area of the interweb was more popular I would feel a little more guilty about it.

So I am sitting here with random thoughts going through my head.

Random thought 1:
A chick I used to be friends with emailed me a few months ago (in a mass email) asking for my address to send invitations to her wedding. Now I haven't heard from this chick in over a year and I only hear from her if I call her. And when I talk to her, it's all about her. It's the "J Show" with occasional commercial breaks to ask what I am up to, followed by more of the "J Show". So needless to say I ignored her email. She met the guy in July and is getting married this March. This is her second marriage, I went to the first wedding and didn't think it would last. I don't have much confidence in this one either. I didn't invite her to my wedding.

Random thought 2:
For some reason my old roommate popped into my head and I was wondering how she was doing in her marriage. She met the guy online and was engaged after 8 months. Just wondering if they are still together and if they did the whole baby thing yet.

Random thought 3:
Been thinking of first dance songs for my wedding. I don't like all of the stereotypical ones, so I was thinking something unique and not heard at weddings that often. Any suggestions?

Those are the ones floating round at the moment. Nothing huge, mostly unimportant drivel.
That's what happens when I have nothing to work on for most of the day. Day dreaming and thinking about stupid shit.